The UAE is the world’s 31st popular tourism destination and the most popular in the Arab world, ahead of Egypt — ranked 32nd and Saudi Arabia ranked 35 — in terms of tourism receipts, United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) data shows.

In the Middle East, Turkey outranks the UAE, retaining 12th position with tourism receipts climbing to US$25.7 billion.

UAE’s international tourism receipts are somewhat close to US$10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) that includes hotel revenues and the receipts from air travel.

UAE’s hotel revenues last year reached Dh21 billion serving 14.5 billion hotel guests — including 10 million served by Dubai’s hotels and serviced apartments, according to the UAE National Council of Tourism and Antiquities (NCTA).

“Tourism accounts for 14 per cent of our GDP, which is well above the global average of 9 per cent,” she said at the UNWTO Ministerial Forum earlier this month. “Dubai is the most connected city in the world, connecting a third of the world’s population, according to the International Air Transportation Association. It connects 220 cities across the world and its airport is set to handle 66 million passengers this year.”

Peter Goddard, Managing Director of TRI Hospitality Consulting in Dubai, said, “2012/13 has been one of the strongest tourist seasons in Dubai’s history. Tourism arrivals from all regions have shown significant growth as the city’s leaders have ensured that both capacity and connectivity matched the growing tourism demand and visitor requirements. Dubai is now home to the world’s second busiest airport, further proving Dubai’s position as a primary destination as well as a major international transit hub.”

International arrivals to the Middle East declined marginally to 52.6 million last year, down from 55.3 million recorded in 2011, primarily due to the Arab Spring.

“The Middle East is one of the fastest growing tourism regions in the world in spite of countless challenges; much of this dynamism has been led by the strong political commitment awarded to tourism in the region and the vision that tourism is a key pillar of development in the Middle East, of which the UAE is a perfect example,” Dr Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary-General, told Gulf News during the Arabian Travel Market earlier this month.

“However, the industry is challenged by the Arab Spring that has restricted tourists’ movement to some of the Arab countries, especially Egypt that has a large tourism industry.”

Travel advisories

Lebanon’s Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud, said, his travel advisories are affecting the regional tourism industry. “Travel advisories give negative impressions in the mind of tourists. While the ground realities might be conducive to travel, the advisories prevent people to travel.

“Also the governments are prompt in putting travel advisories, they are not prompt in lifting them.”

He said, his country’s tourism industry is suffering due to travel advisories against Lebanon.

Gassan Aridi, Chief Executive of Alpha Tours, said, despite these challenges, the regional tourism will thrive. “With more and more people travelling globally, we expect a significant part of that to visit the Middle East due to continued economic growth and job creation — some of the factors that will continue to drive tourists to the region.

“With the Arab airlines expanding their fleets and network of destinations and their growing partnership with other international airlines, we expect this to accelerate in the coming years.”

Abu Dhabi city’s population is increasing by one person every two minutes and 48 seconds, according to figures released recently by the Abu Dhabi Statistics Centre (Scad).

The total population of the capital has reached around 2.5 million people, the centre said in a ceremony attended by Nasser Ahmad Al Suwaidi, chairman of the board of directors of Scad.

“Three initiatives have been launched to show an estimate of the capital’s current population, such as the Abu Dhabi population clock which projects the latest estimated resident population for the city and assumes a total population increase of one person every 2 minutes and 48 seconds,” said Ahmad Mohammad Bin Butti Al Qubaisi, director-general of Scad.

“Additionally, a purchasing power calculator, which compares the relative value of a past amount of dirhams to a present amount, is one of the initiatives lately introduced. The calculator will be used to determine the value of an amount of money in a particular ‘original’ year to another ‘desired’ year. The applicant should enter the values in the appropriate places shown on the Scad website.

“For example, you may want to know: how much money you would need in 2012 to have the same purchasing power of Dh100 in 2002. If you entered these values in the correct places, you will find that the answer is Dh168.61,” he explained.

The consumer price index (CPI) is the official measure of consumer inflation in Abu Dhabi emirate. The CPI is based on the total expenditure of all households in a particular year or month, which can now be measured by the personal inflation calculator newly introduced by the centre.

“This inflation calculator is aimed at allowing the public to gauge what their own inflation rate might be. It will also allow you to capture your own personal expenditure patterns as weights.

“When you put down your expenditure, you should exclude any payments that are savings or investments and you can include the main 12 items of spending common for individuals including housing, water, transport, communication, education, health, clothing and footwear,” Al Qubaisi added.

Several private and government agencies will benefit from the purchasing power calculator, including decision makers in financial institutions, researchers and businessmen as well as investors and dealers within the UAE.

A new survey to measure family spending and household income for 2013-2014 will be conducted next June to provide a reflection of the living conditions in the emirate.

The centre will also conduct a survey to compute the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the emirate of Abu Dhabi during June as well as to measure the size and spatial distribution of labour forces and unemployment rates in Abu Dhabi city.

The Abu Dhabi Statistics Centre is keen to build an advanced and up-to-date database of the labour force status of all population members, their occupations and economic activities.

Al Qubaisi said: “Spending on statistics is growing continuously to meet the needs of the sustainable development in the UAE,” adding that, “Spending on statistical systems has been increased dramatically by 50 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012 to ensure this.”